In a Book Club Far Away(48)
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Adelaide
February 2012
“Happy Valentine’s to us. We’re here. We’re really here.” Adelaide stepped down the three steps from the double-decker tour bus to the pedestrian-filled sidewalk. Times Square was up ahead, with billboards and flashing signs trailing up to the blue sky. She tightened the thick woven scarf around her neck, ignoring the twenty-degree chill because hello! She was in the Big Apple. It was going to be perfect if she could help it.
Regina was a genius for suggesting this adventure.
Adelaide walked a few steps from the bus and turned around to watch the book clubbers spill from the narrow door. All fifteen were accounted for among the other patrons of this Hop-On, Hop-Off trip that would comprise about six hours of their day, before they headed back to the pickup spot, where a charter bus would take them all back upstate.
She spotted her friends. Sophie was chatting away, and Regina was standing in the rear of the group. She had been late to the charter bus pickup and almost missed loading entirely, and when Adelaide had passed her while going to the bus restroom, she was sound asleep. Adelaide had been eager to chat, to update her on the itinerary. Since Regina had been too busy with work, and the second trimester had left her exhausted, Adelaide had been more than happy to step up to lead the day-of details.
“Do you feel Tina Fey here?” she asked Regina now.
“What I really feel is hungry.” Regina’s answered was curt. She sniffed the air, expression softening a bit. “I smell french fries, or fried something. Before we do anything can we eat?”
“Of course! Our NBC tour is in an hour, so we definitely have time to pick up a quick snack. I looked up a sandwich place that’s just straight ahead.” Actually, Adelaide had researched everything, from the restaurants they would frequent and the sights they would see, with their pregnant host, their most high-maintenance participant, in mind.
Adelaide led the group down Seventh Avenue. The book clubbers trailed her like little ducklings.
Except their group split, distracted by another restaurant with wide-open doors and a doorman beckoning inside.
“Wait a minute. You guys? That might be a sit-down place,” Adelaide said.
“Oh dear, I think you’re losing them.” Sophie passed her, as with the rest of the group. A slew of other tourists mixed in between their bodies. “If you have another place in mind, you might want to yell it out now.”
She found her itinerary. Multipage, stapled, and printed from her brand-new inkjet. She waved the papers up in the air. “People, come back!”
At first, no one else turned around, so Adelaide yelled, “Millersville Book Club! Hello!”
Finally, the group meandered Adelaide’s way. She breathed a sigh of relief, though pedestrian traffic ballooned where they stalled. Someone shoulder-checked her from behind. She gathered her bearings and said, “We’re going that way.”
“Oh, why didn’t you say so?” a voice said. “No big deal.”
But as the day progressed, everything became a big deal. It started with the group’s complaints at the NBC Studios tour, which couldn’t fit their entire book club without having to split up into three groups. There were rumblings at how it was too cold to be using public transportation. One of the ladies forgot her purse on a bench at Rockefeller Center, and they had to backtrack for that. It was Adelaide’s responsibility to know where the restrooms were at all times, apparently. And she was informed that there hadn’t been enough time allotted for the World Trade Center site, and that they all should demand a refund.
The day that was supposed to be perfect had been reduced to a string of complaints and misguided suggestions.
Dinner was the last of their activities before they boarded the bus for their late-night travel back to Millersville. Adelaide had chosen a pub that, while on paper sounded ideal, was the worst restaurant she could have picked. Three of the book clubbers had one too many drinks and were properly tipsy and cantankerous well before their food came. Add the clank of dishes and the roar of the crowd, and Adelaide’s nerves were on overload.
And yet, she kept the smile on her face; she was going to fake it till she made it.
“Hey, are you okay?” Sophie said.
It made Adelaide jump. Her friend was sitting across from her. “Oh, ah, yeah, I’m good.”
“Okay, it’s just that you had this look.”
What look? Adelaide forced her smile wider apart; she realized book club loyalist Frank next to her had stopped his conversation to watch them. She scrambled for an answer. “No, I was just thinking, you know. About Bossypants.”
Sophie pasted on a frown. “I wasn’t a fan. I don’t know why, but I look for struggle in my nonfiction because I want to learn. I didn’t have much to learn from her.”
Kerry, from three seats down in their long table, nodded. “She mentioned her scar, though. I kind of wish she went into that.”
Colleen unrolled her napkin and put it on her lap. “Her thoughts on improv as it applies to life were good. I liked the one where she encouraged the concept of saying ‘yes, and…’ I took it as encouragement to take an active role in change and society.”
Everyone at the table nodded, including Adelaide. But the message hit her in the space in the middle of her breastbone. It brought back everything she had thought of when decorating Regina’s room. What had she contributed lately, except for a field trip half the book clubbers hated? What exactly was her purpose?